1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to recording and reproducing apparatuses having a structure in which a hard disk drive (HDD) unit is mounted on an HDD holder via a shock-absorbing member and the HDD holder is mounted on a main body chassis.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional hybrid recording and reproducing apparatuses in which an HDD unit, a videocassette recorder (VCR) unit, and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) unit are mounted on a main body chassis, all of these units are mounted directly on the main body chassis.
FIG. 3 shows a state where an HDD unit, a DVD unit, and a VCR unit are mounted on a main body chassis.
That is, a vertically standing front panel 11 is arranged on the front side of a main body chassis 10, the front panel 11 being provided with a disk insertion opening 12 for loading an optical disk (DVD) therethrough and a cassette insertion opening 13 for loading a videocassette therethrough. Then, a VCR unit 20 including a tuner section 20a and other sections is arranged in such a manner as to face the cassette insertion opening 13, a DVD unit 30 is arranged in such a manner as to face the disk insertion opening 12, and an HDD unit 40 is arranged in rear of the DVD unit 30. That is, the DVD unit 30 and the HDD unit 40 are arranged side by side next to the VCR unit 20 that requires the largest space.
Then, the HDD unit 40 is to be mounted on an HDD holder 50 formed through sheet metal processing, as shown in FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b), and the HDD holder 50 is to be mounted and fixed onto the main body chassis 10.
The HDD holder 50 includes a placing plate 51 for placing and fixing the HDD unit 40 thereon, and a pair of left and right leg pieces 52 and 53 is suspended downward from the front end portion of the placing plate 51 and further the lower end portions of the leg pieces are folded forward at about 90 degrees to form fixation pieces 52a and 53a for fixation to the main body chassis 10. Also, the rear end portion of the placing plate 51 stands vertically to form a backside fixation plate 54 for fixation to a backside plate 14 formed on the back side of the main body chassis 10.
Screw insertion holes 55, 55, . . . are formed in the fixation pieces 52a and 53a and the backside fixation plate 54, and screw holes (not shown in the drawings) are formed correspondingly in the bottom panel of the main body chassis 10 and the backside plate 14. Then, the HDD holder 50 is to be fixed to the main body chassis 10 by inserting screw members (not shown in the drawings) into the respective screw holes formed in the bottom panel of the main body chassis 10 and the backside plate 14 through the respective screw insertion holes 55, 55, . . . formed in the fixation pieces 52a and 53a and the backside fixation plate 54.
On the other hand, attachment pieces 41 and 41 for attaching the HDD unit 40 to the placing plate 51 of the HDD holder 50 are formed in a horizontally extending manner, respectively, from the front and rear lower end portions of the HDD unit 40, and the attachment pieces 41 and 41 each have two approximately U-shaped screw fitting notched portions 43 and 43 (i.e. four portions in total) formed on the left and right sides thereof. Also, screw holes 56, 56, . . . are formed at positions in the placing plate 51 that correspond to the positions of the screw fitting notched portions 43, 43, . . . .
Then, as shown in FIG. 4(b), lower dampers 61b, 61b, . . . each formed of a cylindrical rubber elastic member (shock-absorbing member) are disposed on the screw holes 56, 56, . . . , the attachment pieces 41 and 41 of the HDD unit 40 are placed on the dampers 61b, 61b, . . . in such a manner that the screw fitting notched portions 43, 43, . . . are aligned with the respective dampers, and upper dampers 61a, 61a, . . . each formed of a cylindrical rubber elastic member (shock-absorbing member) are further disposed on the attachment pieces. In this state, the periphery of each screw fitting notched portion 43 in both the attachment pieces 41 and 41 is to be fixed between each upper damper 61a and lower damper 61b by inserting screw members 62, 62, . . . from above into the screw holes 56, 56, . . . .
However, in actual mounting operations, each upper damper 61a and lower damper 61b are fitted preliminarily on each screw member 62, and the screw members 62 are fitted temporarily to the attachment pieces 41 of the HDD unit 40 in such a manner that each screw fitting notched portion 43 in the attachment pieces 41 is inserted into the clearance between each upper damper 61a and lower damper 61b, as shown in FIG. 4(a). In this state, the HDD unit 40 is disposed on the placing plate 51 of the HDD holder 50 and then fixed to the HDD holder 50 by inserting the screw members 62 into the corresponding screw holes 56.
That is, the HDD unit 40 is designed to be held in a slightly floating manner over the placing plate 51 by the lower dampers 61b so that the vibration of the HDD unit 40 itself cannot be transmitted directly to the HDD holder 50 and the main body chassis 10 with the HDD holder 50 mounted thereon and therefore the DVD unit 30 and VCR unit 20 mounted on the main body chassis 10.
Such a structure of mounting an HDD unit on an HDD holder via an elastic member is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2006-092703 and 2003-314613, though different from the configuration shown in FIG. 4. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2006-092703 and 2003-314613 each disclose a structure of mounting an HDD unit on an HDD holder formed through sheet metal processing via a rubber elastic member.
In accordance with the foregoing conventional art, vibrations generated in the HDD unit 40 can be attenuated by the upper and lower dampers 61a and 61b to some degree. However, conventional apparatuses, in which the HDD holder 50 itself is formed through sheet metal processing, suffer from a problem in that vibrations that cannot be absorbed completely by the upper and lower dampers 61a and 61b may be transmitted through the metal plate HDD holder 50 with no attenuation to the main body chassis 10 and therefore the DVD unit 30 and VCR unit 20 mounted on the main body chassis 10. In particular, apparatuses equipped with a VCR unit 20 suffer from a problem in that such vibrations have a subtle impact on the magnetic head mounted on the rotating drum of the VCR unit 20, resulting in a deterioration in the performance of the VCR. That is, there is a possibility of occurrence of faulty recording due to tracking errors during recording and/or distortion of images due to tracking errors during reproduction, etc.